“Yesterday’s announcement by the education secretary is a positive step forward that will support young people in developing real-world skills they will later need in the workplace. The question I would raise, is whether these mooted vocational courses extend to design and creative subjects, such as gaming and web development.

Education changes lives, and providing students with vocational skills that are valued by those in industry enables both businesses and young people to fulfil their potential. Historically, education has been far too focussed on raw academic qualifications. Education shouldn’t be about being able to tick a certain box – it should instead be about the underlying skills that having a certain qualification demonstrates.

Should today’s proposals omit design and the wider creative arts, it would be an opportunity missed and could threaten the future success of the UK’s creative industries, which currently constitute one of the fastest-growing sectors in the country. The UK is renowned for its creativity thanks to its successes in fashion, art, design, film, food and music, and as such, it is imperative that we ensure creativity and design are an integral part of these planned vocational qualifications.”

At Adobe, we’ve been doing our bit to support vocational learning, most recently by offering young people the opportunity to gain practical technology and creativity skills, as well as learn about the world of gaming and design, through our Adobe Generation online courses. In addition, we have been extending student access to Adobe technology and helping institutions meet students’ increasing demand for access to the latest technology, through the Eduserv Adobe ELA Framework Agreement. This three year license agreement will enable Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) institutions to deploy the latest version of Adobe’s Creative Suite across the entire campus, as well as on staff computers, for the first time.